Elene; Judith; Athelstan, or the Fight at Brunanburh; Byrhtnoth, or the Fight at Maldon; and the Dream of the Rood eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 66 pages of information about Elene; Judith; Athelstan, or the Fight at Brunanburh; Byrhtnoth, or the Fight at Maldon; and the Dream of the Rood.

I have added to this reprint of my “Elene and
other Anglo Saxon Poems” a translation of the
dreamoftherood, which has been
on hand for several years awaiting a suitable time
to see the light. A brief Introduction to the
poem has been prefixed, which, doubtless, leaves much
to be desired, but it is all that the translator now
has time for, and I must refer to the works mentioned
for fuller information and discussion. With thanks
for past consideration, and the hope that this addition
has made the book more acceptable, I entrust it again
to indulgent readers.

James M. Garnett.

Baltimore, Maryland,
October, 1900.

PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1911.

I have read over carefully these translations with
a view to another reprint, which the publishers find
necessary, but I have not compared them again with
the texts used. I have corrected a few typographical
errors of little importance.

For the bibliography I would refer to Brandl’s
Sonderausgabe aus der zweiten Auflage von Paul’s
Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (Strassburg,
1908), in which I find noted Holthausen’s edition
of the Elene (Heidelberg, 1905), but I have not
seen it.

I take advantage of this opportunity to say that my
translation of Beowulf, of which the last reprint
was issued in 1910, is not in prose, as some
have misconceived it, but it is in the same metrical
form as the translations in the present volume,—­an
accentual metre in rough imitation of the original.
I agree with Professor Gummere and others that this
is a better form for the translation of Old English
poetry than plain prose. It was approved by the
late Professor Child nearly thirty years ago,
as noted in the Preface to the second edition of my
translation of Beowulf, January, 1885.

James M. Garnett.

Baltimore, Maryland,
February, 1911.

INTRODUCTION.

In presenting to the public the following translations
of the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) poems, Elene,
Judith, Athelstan, Byrhtnoth, and thedreamoftherood, it is desirable
to prefix a brief account of them for the information
of the general reader.

I. The Elene, or Helena, is a poem on the expedition
of the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great,
the first Christian emperor, to Palestine in search
of the true cross, and its successful issue. The
mediaeval legend of the Finding of the Cross is given
in the Acta Sanctorum under date of May 4,
assigned by the Church to the commemoration of St.
Helena’s marvellous discovery. The Latin
work is the Life of St. Quiriacus, or Cyriacus, Bishop
of Jerusalem, that is, the Judas of the poem.